I’m sick and tired of reading about liberals attacking Rand Paul as a racist ( 1, 2, and 3 ) when his views could just as easily be seen as advocating for the freedom and the rights of Morehouse College, and other historically black colleges and universities, to serve whomever they wish to serve. It’s the kind of hypocritical political nonsense I think we’ve all come to expect from the Two Main Parties. It really makes me want to vomit.

So I’m going to discuss some thoughts I had that were generated by a quote from a book that came up in conversation. It’s from Edward “Father of PR” Bernays’s Propaganda (1928).

The conscious and intelligent manipulation of the organized habits and opinions of the masses is an important element in democratic society. Those who manipulate this unseen mechanism of society constitute an invisible government which is the true ruling power of our country. We are governed, our minds are molded, our tastes formed, our ideas suggested, largely by men we have never heard of. This is a logical result of the way in which our democratic society is organized.

Proof of theory: There are no ugly people on TV. Half of the people on Earth must, due to the law of averages, be of “below average” looks. And you’ll never see a single one of them on television.

You rarely see plus sized women in magazines, or on TV, working as models. Producers and casting agents all go after, and idolize, the Kate Moss physique. This has lasting impacts on the mental health of young girls, who are surrounded 24/7 by these images, and told that this is the perfect state to which they should strive to emulate. Poor girl. If she grows up in a home that watches a lot of Fox News, she’s going to think that the entire world is populated by blonde women.

Or take beer commercials. The vast majority of the beer consumed in this country is gulped down by middle aged, hair covered, sweaty, stinky men sitting on bar stools, or in their recliners at home. But beer commercials only show us people with 6-pack abs and long, flowing golden locks of hair frolicking on the beach in the sun.  They never show us pictures of people curled up around a toilet, passed out in a puddle of their own vomit.

Rap music is another excellent place to view this phenomena. Hip hop artists, like the Jurassic Five, Lupe Fiasco, Dead Prez, these groups have something to say. I may not agree with it all the time, but they are making music about things other than diamond necklaces, Gucci clothes, bi*ches and hos, selling drugs, and clubbing, much of which I don’t like either. Many black people, as Dave Chapelle points out in his movie Block Party, despise the rap that pop culture focuses on, most of them saying the same things I’ve said about the lack of fat models and its effect on the minds of young girls: namely that it pushes an unrealistic, unproductive view of life, and establishes stupid goals, and helps create retarded dreams.

No rap star spends their entire life slinging drugs on the corner, running from the law, and being the life of the party in the clubs. They wouldn’t be rap stars if they did.  They’d be dead or locked up in jail, just like  vast legions of the youths (of all races) who have tried to emulate the fictional lives of their rap star role models.

Another proof of concept: The dissolving of the extended family. For most of our existence, humans have lived in extended families, and lived in multi-generational homes. The parents and older children worked, the grandparents took care of the little kids and saw to their education. But GE can sell more washing machines if they break up that extended family and push us towards nuclear families. Now you have a need for 2 houses, 2 cars, 2 washing machines, 2 TVs, etc.

I think that there is a healthy dose of left/right to the phenomena. From abstinence education and  differing views on the issue of drugs, to the definition of what is actually a marriage, many of the facets of our society are viewed by most people through the Red Team vs. Blue Team prism. I don’t knock their choice, I myself am hardly impartial when it comes to arguing many matters. But the idea that we apparently enjoy it doesn’t change the fact that politicians on both sides of the aisle try to rile up and anger their bases whenever the other side tries to legislate their own sense of morality into existence.

I don’t like the GOP’s stance on abortion, because I don’t think it’s any of our business if a woman wants to get one or not. The people shooting abortion doctors haven’t, to the best of my knowledge, been known, as a group, for having adopted a mess of inner city crack babies rather than see them aborted… The woman isn’t demonstrating “good morals” if she doesn’t have the ability to choose because abortions have been outlawed.

I also don’t like the Democrat’s Health Care reform for the purpose of “providing insurance to those without.” I see it as using the government to steal money from some who have worked to earn it, and giving it to others who haven’t worked for it. I don’t consider theft to be moral, no matter what lie the politicians tell you as their reason for doing it.

But my point is that both sides engage in massive PR campaigns to try to influence the thinking of the voters… Much like Budweiser engages in a massive PR campaign to get you to forget that most of its customers are overweight rednecks sweating in some dive out in the middle of BFE and not perfect physical specimens playing volleyball on some pristine beach. Mass marketing, gone political.

And with that thought, I was struck with the memory of a Bill Hicks routine, one of my favorites from one of my favorite comedians (Language Warning). When you watch it, try to mentally replace “dollar” and “markets” with “vote” and you’ll see that it still makes just as much sense.

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